Rugby Match Preview: Northampton Saints vs Newcastle Falcons
Northampton Saints will host the Newcastle Falcons in their seventh match of the 2011/12 Aviva Premiership season at Franklin Garden’s, Northampton on Saturday, October 29. Both teams are
coming from last week's Anglo Welsh (LV=Cup) encounter.
Saints played against Ospreys while Falcons faced London Irish in their last weekend’s LV cup encounters.
Saints at the moment are placed at the 9th position of the 2011/12 Premiership table with 9 points and two wins, while Falcons are placed at the bottom of the table with five points
coming from their solitary bonus point win in the premiership season so far.
Northampton Saints Director of Rugby, Jim Mallinder has made five changes in their starting xv, which took the field against the Ospreys, in their last week encounter.
Saints will enter the match eyeing a bonus point victory over the Falcons to improve their rankings on the tables. However, their chances to challenge the top placed Harlequins is currently
far from reach. Quins are comfortably sitting on top of the table with their six wins out of their six premiership matches in the season so far.
Commenting on their performance in the season so far, Mallinder said, “We're not happy about where we are and we need to make sure it's all about Saturday and winning against Newcastle. We're
ninth in the table and they're 12th, and we're desperate for wins and for points.”
Mallinder has expressed his displeasure on the selection dilemma he has to face in the absence of several of the club’s first choice players due to injury and their national duties. He said,
“With all the lads back from international duty and others back from injury, it's given us some good choices.”
Newcastle Falcons head coach, Alan Tait, has made changes in his match day 23 squad for their upcoming encounter. Five of these seven changes are made in their forwards pack, which sees the
return of the duo of Tim Swinson and Will Welch. Furthermore, the front row trio of Joe Graham, Grant Shiells, and Euan Murray completes the changes in the forwards pack.
The squads of both sides for their Friday, Saturday 29 encounter consists of:
Northampton Saints
Starting XV: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 Tom May, 11 Vasily Artemyev, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Phil Dowson, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Calum Clark, 5 Courtney
Lawes, 4 Samu Manoa 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Paul Doran Jones, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Roger Wilson, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Scott Armstrong.
Newcastle Falcons
Starting XV: 15 Jeremy Manning, 14 Luke Eves, 13 Corne Uys, 12 Jamie Helleur, 11 Rikki Sheriffe, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Chris Pilgrim, 8 Ally Hogg (c) 7 Will Welch, 6 Mark Wilson,
5 Andrew van der Heijden, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Joe Graham, 1 Grant Shiells.
Replacements:16 Michael Mayhew, 17 Ashley Wells, 18 Dan Frazier, 19 Glen Townson, 20 Redford Pennycook, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Alex Tait, 23 Greg Goosen.
Tags: